Edinburgh’s Jacob Fearnley returned to winning tennis ways when he defeated Austria’s Lukas Neumayer 6-3, 7-6 to reach the second round of the Bahrain Challenger tournament.
He is expected back in action on Thursday against an as yet undetermined opponent.
The elephant in the room for Edinburgh’s Fearnley has been his high double fault count so the fact he restricted himself to just one late in the second set almost, but not quite, overshadowed a highly satisfactory result.
Indeed, Fearnley cruised through his opening four service games without losing a point and seemed set for a straightforward and confidence boosting victory until … he twice attempted to serve for the match and failed. Fortunately he was able to remedy the situation with a timely break but even then he lost the first two points of the breaker.
Still the drama wasn’t over as a snapped shoe lace at 6-3 in the tie break saw Fearnley require the umpire’s permission for some hurried repairs.
Other statistics that will please the Scot were his eight aces and 69 per cent of first serves while he hit 32 winners to his lower ranked opponents’ 10.
There was also no sign of the protective sleeve worn on his arm in recent contests – a factor, maybe in the service improvement?
Although his second victory of the year from six starts was over the world no 226 and on the second tier Challenger tour you could argue Jacob had one of his most important wins?
Had he gone out in a hail of double faults – a major concern recently – where would he have gone next?
He didn’t. And although a bit of a problem getting the win over the line – he visibly tightened down the home straight it is something to build on but iust now be backed up before the former Colinton junior is considered to be back on track.
